KABUL, March 09, 2014 (AFP) - Afghan Vice President Marshal Mohammad Qasim Fahim, formerly one of the country's much-feared warlords, has died of natural causes, officials said Sunday, adding that three days of national mourning would be held.

Fahim, a leader of the Tajik ethnic minority, served as senior vice president to President Hamid Karzai, who is due to step down at elections next month as NATO combat forces pull out of Afghanistan after 13 years of fighting the Taliban.

Aged 56, Fahim was accused of being a ruthless strongman who maintained his own militia forces, but he also received American support as Afghanistan sought stability after the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka warned that US efforts to force an international investigation into alleged war crimes on the island could have an "adverse impact" on all developing nations.

The Colombo government told the ongoing UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva that a draft resolution against Sri Lanka could set a "bad precedent".

The US has given notice of a resolution backing UN rights chief Navi Pillay's call for an external probe into charges that Sri Lankan troops killed up to 40,000 civilians while crushing Tamil rebels in 2009.

"Being intrusive, politicised and in clear contravention of accepted principles of conduct in the council, the resolution sets a bad precedent, and can in the medium-to-long term have an adverse impact on all developing countries in the council," Sri Lanka's envoy in Geneva, Ravi Aryasinha, said.

In his statement to the council, a copy of which was released in Colombo, Aryasinha said the draft resolution was also a violation of Sri Lanka's sovereignty as well as its constitution.

Dozens of pro-government women staged a demonstration outside the US embassy in Colombo, denouncing the US-led censure move at the UNHRC.

International rights groups and UN experts had said there are "credible allegations" that up to 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed after government forces ordered them into a no-fire zone in 2009.

The US-led resolution asked Pillay to give an oral report on progress to the council at its 27th session in September, and provide a written report by March 2015.

The draft also called on Sri Lanka to investigate allegations of military excesses and expressed "serious concern" over continuing reports of human rights violations five years after the end of the decades-long separatist war. — AFP

HANOI - Vietnamese search planes spotted oil slicks near where a Malaysia Airlines jet carrying 239 people abruptly vanished on Saturday as it emerged that two passengers appeared to have been using stolen EU passports.

Rescuers are still hunting for the whereabouts of the twin-engine plane going from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing more than 24 hours after it slipped off radar screens somewhere between Malaysia's east coast and southern Vietnam, triggering an international search effort.

In a sign of the growing gloom over the fate of the aircraft, the airline early Sunday urged "all Malaysians and people around the world to pray for flight MH370".

Air search operations were halted at nightfall, though ships continued searching, Malaysia Airlines said.
The airline admitted: "It has been more than 24 hours since we last heard from MH370 at 1:30 am. The search and rescue team is yet to determine the whereabouts of the Boeing 777-200 aircraft."

Adding to the mystery over the sudden loss of communication with the aircraft, it emerged that two people on the flight appeared to have been travelling on stolen EU passports.

An Austrian, named in reports as Christian Kozel, had his passport pinched in Thailand in 2012, while Italian Luigi Maraldi, 37, had his stolen last year, also in Thailand, officials and sources said.

Despite their names being on the passenger manifest, neither man was on the flight to Beijing.

Martin Weiss, a spokesman for the Austrian foreign ministry, told AFP Kozel was "safe and sound" in Austria, but declined to comment on whether Vienna had been contacted by intelligence services for more information.

Speaking to reporters in Malaysia, Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Aziz Kaprawi said authorities were probing the matter for possible foul play. "The information is still under review," he was quoted as saying by the Malay Mail Online.

All possibilities' being studied

In Washington, a US administration official said authorities were aware of the reporting of the two stolen passports.

"We have not determined a nexus to terrorism yet, although it's still very early and that's by no means definitive. We're still tracking the situation," the official said.

Earlier, when asked whether terrorism could have been a factor, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said: "We are looking at all possibilities but it is too soon to speculate."

"We are not certain where these two oil slicks may have come from so we have sent Vietnamese ships to the area."

"I think the two oil slicks are very likely linked to the missing plane," Vice-Admiral Ngo Van Phat, who is helping to direct the search mission, told AFP.

No distress signal

Flight MH370 had relayed no distress signal, indications of rough weather, or other signs of trouble, and both Malaysia's national carrier and the Boeing 777-200 model used on the route are known for their solid safety records.

The plane's disappearance triggered a search effort involving vessels from several nations with rival maritime claims in the tense South China Sea.

China, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore threw vessels and aircraft into the effort.

Two Chinese warships were on their way to the possible crash zone, the Xinhua news agency said, quoting Chinese navy sources.

The United States also dispatched a naval destroyer, with two helicopters aboard, and a surveillance plane.

The South China Sea - a vital shipping lane and a resource-rich area - is the subject of overlapping claims and a growing source of friction between China and its neighbours.

Contact with the aircraft was lost at around 1:30am Malaysian time (1730 GMT Friday), Malaysian authorities said, about an hour after take-off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

Initially, authorities had put the last contact time at 2:40 am. The new time suggests the jet disappeared closer to Malaysia than first thought.

If the worst is confirmed, it would be the second fatal crash ever for the widely used Boeing 777. A 777-200 operated by South Korea's Asiana Airlines skidded off the runway in San Francisco last year, killing three people.

Malaysia Airlines has suffered few safety incidents in the past. Its worst occurred in 1977, when 100 people perished in a hijacking and subsequent crash in southern Malaysia.

The 153 Chinese passengers aboard the plane included an infant, while 38 Malaysians and seven Indonesians were aboard.

Six Australians, five Indians, four French nationals, and three Americans including an infant, were also among those listed and the Dutch Foreign Ministry said it believed one Dutch passenger was on the plane.

The pilot had flown for the carrier since 1981, Malaysia Airlines said. The plane was more than 11 years old.

The lack of information sparked fury among pained relatives in Beijing.

"They should have told us something before now," a visibly distressed man in his 30s said at a hotel where passengers' families were asked to gather.

Malaysia Airlines has sent a team of 93 people to China, whose tasks include helping distraught relatives.

A deadly accident would be a huge blow for Malaysia Airlines, which has bled money for years as its struggles to fend off competition from rivals such as fast-growing Malaysia-based AirAsia. - AFP